This story is about a young man who had the biggest ears in town, but couldn’t hear a thing. His outside ear was like a satellite dish, but his inner ear was clogged. People would see this young man and say,”Man, with those ears he must be able to hear good.” Ole Big Ears would notice people admiring and even marvelling at his huge ears, but he couldn’t hear what they were saying, so he tried to learn to read lips. He started realizing that his ear size was a big topic for everyone who saw him and he also realized he sould be able to hear people talk, but he couldn’t. The old phrase “in one ear and out the other” didn’t even apply, because both ears were equally deaf. So he went to an ear specialist to see about getting his problem fixed. The ear specialist looked at the inside of his ears and exclaimed “you’ve got a big blockage inside your ears keeping you from hearing properly.” To which the young man replied, “Take it out!” The ear specialist started working on the blockage and after about two hours he had removed a massive amount of cotton from the young man’s ears. The ear specialist couldn’t believe how much cotton was in the young man’s ears and asked him, “How did you come to have so much cotton in your ears?” The young man told him that early in his life he didn’t like what he was hearing and he put some cotton in his ears because he was hearing truthful things so clearly that it made him feel guilty. To get rid of the guilt meant he didn’t need to hear it, so he plugged cotton in his ears. But he found out he could still hear and trying to shut out anything that made him feel guilty, he plugged in more cotton until he was totally deaf. But this is the strange thing. He forgot he had plugged his ears and went through life totally uninformed and deaf. Not until the ear specialist looked deep down in his ear did he find the cotton that he himself had actually put in there years before. Now he could hear like everyone else, and now he could receive wisdom from those who would speak into his life. Now his inner ear’s senstivity matched the size of his outer ear (which was huge!) Now everything was back in proportion and he was ready to receive instruction and learn how to live his life accordingly.
This story illustrates how we as believers have ears that are enlarged to hear God’s truth and the volume is loud and clear. But the first time we hear something we don’t like or agree with, we put cotton in our ears to block it out. But or ears are so big, it takes more and more cotton to finally shut it all out. Then we think we feel good, but we have actually stopped all growth in our Christian life and are now deaf to the one we must listen to. To onlookers things like church attendance, Bible Study, and prayer are a big part of our life, but in reality our ears are closed off and we are not actually listening anymore, we just have the appearance that we are because our ears are so big. When people need to hear something from us that pertains to God’s truths they come to us and we can’t even hear them because our inner ear has a massive blockage. So we go around with big looking ears that cannot hear at all.
Sometimes I find myself sharing a truth from God’s Word and I can tell those who are listening cannot hear the truth. Their outside ears are huge, giving me the perception that they have to be hearing the truth from God’s Word , but they don’t hear a thing. Frustrated at times, I find myself not even wanting to share the truth because it is hitting deaf ears, and what’s the use? The sad part of the whole thing is they have ears that God has given them that can hear and understand God’s truths, but their inner ear is resisting and that resistance is not controlled by God.
In Revelation 2:1 John writes this to Ephesus, to the Angel of the church. The One with Seven Stars in his right-fist grip, striding through the golden seven-lights’ circle, speaks: 2 “I see what you’ve done, your hard, hard work, your refusal to quit. I know you can’t stomach evil, that you weed out apostolic pretenders. 3 I know your persistence, your courage in my cause, that you never wear out. 4 “But you walked away from your first love – why? What’s going on with you, anyway? 5 Do you have any idea how far you’ve fallen? A Lucifer fall! “Turn back! Recover your dear early love. No time to waste, for I’m well on my way to removing your light from the golden circle. 6 “You do have this to your credit: You hate the Nicolaitan business. I hate it, too. 7 “Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches. I’m about to call each conqueror to dinner. I’m spreading a banquet of Tree-of-Life fruit, a supper plucked from God’s orchard.”
In John’s Revelation he was writing to the church at Ephesus and their ears had become blocked to God’s truths and their hearing was impaired because their hearts were impaired. He told them they had fallen away from God and compared it to a Lucifer Fall. That’s a stong word that is a warning to all who put cotton in their ears and shut God out. If anything we should be praying for our ears to be wide open and seeking God’s Word in the world we live in today, but still we try to shut God out. When will we realize that we need to go to our ear specialist, our Heavenly Father, and beg Him to take the cotton, given to us by the enemy, out of our ears and start listening again. There is also the point that God becomes very tired of our lack of hearing and He shuts our ears. Paul wrote to the church in Rome about Israel turning a deaf ear to God in Chapter11:7, And then what happened? Well, when Israel tried to be right with God on her own, pursuing her own self-interest, she didn’t succeed. The chosen ones of God were those who let God pursue his interest in them, and as a result received his stamp of legitimacy. The “self-interest Israel” became thick-skinned toward God. 8 Moses and Isaiah both commented on this: Fed up with their quarrelsome, self-centered ways, God blurred their eyes and dulled their ears, Shut them in on themselves in a hall of mirrors, and they’re there to this day. We do not want to get to that point, so we better listen, cause God is speaking!!! It’s time to listen.
Don’ t have a legend about your life called “The Legend of Big Ears!” Start a new legend today that will one day be known as “The Legend of Listening Ears!”
Jesus had to deal with these kind of people when He walked on this earth, Matthew 13:15 The people are blockheads! They stick their fingers in their ears so they won’t have to listen; They screw their eyes shut so they won’t have to look, so they won’t have to deal with me face-to-face and let me heal them. Luke 8:10 He said, “You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom – you know how it works. There are others who need stories. But even with stories some of them aren’t going to get it: Their eyes are open but don’t see a thing, Their ears are open but don’t hear a thing. God is speaking. It is now time for us to listen!!
What will your legend be?
The Pilgrimage continues….
David Warren
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